Author's Note: Hey! Thanks for the lovely review guys. All of your words mean a lot to me. Thanks for being patient with the update, too. You would have probably noticed already that I flipped the naming convention. I talked it over with some friends and they liked it so I used it. As for the chapter itself… Well, I do hope it's up to standard. Please read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Clearly I don't own Sherlock. The show is the baby of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, while Sherlock Holmes itself is the creation of Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Last Time She Saw Magnussen

"So you lost then?" Mycroft asked, stated more like it, in a bored tone. He brought his cup of tea up to his mouth and took a small sip. Tim, sitting across from him adjusted his glasses and rolled his eyes. Anthea was sitting in the middle of the pair around the round table of the restaurant, her chair pulled faintly closer to Mycroft than it was to Tim. If they weren't working she might even hold Mycroft's hand or place her hand oh his knee. He might not like the physical touch but she did.

"Does it really count as losing when we already knew I had no chance?" Time mumbled, staring at the drink menu as if it just insulted his mother.

"Yes." Mycroft finished immediately. Anthea took a side glance at him and actually patted him on the knee, a gentle warning. He probably had no interest in heeding her warning.

"From what we hear you put up a great fight." Anthea smiled her polite work smile. "If it was anyone else you would have won." Tim rolled his eyes again but this time it was directed at his self as he smiled bashfully at Anthea. Mycroft looked physically ill.

"Yeah, because no other defendant would blackmail a judge with photos of him in a brothel."

"You still lost, Mr. Burgess."

"Mycroft." Anthea sighed disappointedly. Steel eyes landed squarely on her face.

"He did."

"To Magnussen." Anthea widened her eyes. "We haven't even attempted to sue him." Mycroft looked down to his cup and turned it so the handle was facing outwards to the right.

"We wouldn't because we don't want to lose. He lost." Mycroft pouted. Tim sniffed. Anthea looked over to the lawyer to see a small smirk on his otherwise sullen face. Anthea eyed him, silently questioning him. The lawyer shook his head, loosening his tie with his left hand.

"It's like watching you fight with yourself." He had humour in his voice. Anthea cocked her head to the side.

"What are you talking about?" She asked. Mycroft was actually looking at Tim for once. Apparently he was interested too.

"Come on, A." Tim laughed, green eyes full of life. "I love you but you're so stubborn. You've met your match." Choosing to ignore her ex, Anthea shook her head and tucked a curl behind her ear.

"Can we get back on subject, please?" She scoffed defensively. "Are you only here to tell us you lost?"

"I think that's a fair reason to call us together." Mycroft hummed. He had a deliciously deviant smile on his face. "I quite enjoyed hearing that in person." He was unbelievable. How was he even a person? Always ready with a remark whenever it was aimed at the right person. Tim let it slide coolly, his grin fading away into a polite neutral expression smoothly.

"I wanted to warn you, Mr. Holmes. For the sake of Anthea." Anthea and Mycroft exchanged a look. Just a split second out of time with each other they both folded their hands together on their laps and looked at Tim.

"Go on." Mycroft nodded. Tim took a breath and scooted forward in his seat.

"He, Magnussen, he came up to me and made a weird comment about Sherlock."

A beat.

The atmosphere around the table went icy cold and goosebumps rose on Anthea's neck. From her peripheral vision Anthea could see that Mycroft was clenching his jaw.

"What did he say exactly?" Mycroft asked so dangerously calm. Tim itched his ear where his glasses came into contact with them.

"He asked me if I was aware of Sherlock Holmes' drug habit." Anthea closed her eyes and took a breath. "And when I said 'excuse me?' he said that I should ask my friends about it." Tim's forest like eyes shifted between the two government workers. "I gathered he meant you two." Mycroft did not move and inch but bit on his bottom lip. Anthea leaned back in her chair and began nodding to herself, as if trying to convince herself that she was alright with this information.

"Okay, Okay." She breathed. "This is nothing. So he knows you worked with us? So what?" She shrugged and shook her head. She didn't like to think about how light and flighty her voice sounded compared to usual. "And anyone who has access to police records or hospital records knows about Sherlock's past with drugs." She looked over at Mycroft. He was staring at his cup of tea. "I mean, Magnussen has probably know about that for years, right?" Mycroft did not move. Tim held out his open palms as if saying he didn't know. Anthea crinkled her nose. "There's nothing special about it. He was just trying to scare Tim."

"That's what I thought." Tim agreed. "But with men like these two I didn't want to chance it." Anthea smiled at him. He was boring and he broke her heart, but Tim had real kindness in his heart and he a very good lawyer. There were reasons why he and Anthea joked about taking over the world. He wasn't Holmes smart but he was Anthea smart, he knew when things went out of his control.

"It doesn't matter either way." Mycroft breathed. His eyes were still looking at the table with a bored expression, his brain ticking away even as he tried to converse. "It's simply Magnussen remind us that no matter what we do he has the upper hand." As she looked over him, Anthea realised she couldn't read anything from Mycroft's expression and that worried her. All she wanted to do was reach out and touch him, to comfort him any way possible but they were working and she couldn't do something like that. She allowed her face to show concern as she watched him. She allowed it to be known that she just wanted to help him, at least she could do that. She was rewarded with a twitch at the corner of his mouth that might have been an attempt to smile or hide a smile that threatened to appear for her sake.

"My ears are burning." The sing song voice came to Anthea's right. She looked over to see Magnussen flanked by one of his cronies walking up to the table. The waiter who had been showing Magnussen to a table, even though Anthea had no doubt this wasn't a coincidence, looked confused and then bored. Tim looked so revolted that he may throw up any second, Mycroft looked tired, Anthea on the other hand looked defensive. Magnussen sat down at the fourth empty seat, his man standing behind him. He looked around the table, smiling a toothy grin at all three participants.

"Why am I not surprised that the free seat is the one between the men, hmm?" He chuckled as he glanced between them. He leaned to Tim and elbowed him in the arm. "I saw the way she was looking at him a moment ago. Did she ever look at you that way?" The table remained silent. Tim brought his chin down to his neck and looked like he was legitimately trying not to throw up now. Anthea, hairs on the back on her neck standing up, was trying her best to keep her breathing deep and slow. Magnussen had just implied that he knew about Tim and Anthea's relationship. While that alone wasn't catastrophic it wasn't a good sign either. Mycroft continued to wear his bored mask, as if none of this was bothering him in the slightest. Beady blue eyes looked around the table.

"Tea?" He asked. "I thought everyone around this table was the type to drown their sorrow in scotch. That is what you are doing, no?"

"Hello Charles." Mycroft sighed, leaning back. Magnussen's grin simpered into a naughty school boy smirk.

"Mycroft." The name sounded strange on his foreign tongue. Tim and Anthea shared a look, the lawyer obviously thinking the same thing. "See." Magnussen nodded at Anthea. "She doesn't look at you anything like the way she looks at him. You were just a companion to her." Anthea clenched her left hand into a fist. Tim was in a cold stare with the man. "Don't worry. Mycroft being as empty as he is, she is probably nothing more than a companion now. This is her penance."

"Excuse me?" Tim scoffed.

"Is that any of your business?" Anthea cocked her head to the side.

"What do you want, Charles?" Mycroft's tone was a warning. The spoke straight after one another, like a strange musical canon.

"Nothing, Mycroft." Magnussen ignored the other two. It was like they weren't even there with the way he looked at Mycroft with those dangerous eyes. "It's been a while since we've spoken, that's all. Is that a crime?"

"I can make it look like one." Tim mumbled to Anthea.

"I'm working at the moment, Charles." Mycroft gave the man a thin lipped smile that would usually send the room cold had the shark not done it already. "Make your talk quick." Magnussen looked at Mycroft. He took him in for thirty second and suddenly began laughing. He looked at Anthea with horrible glee in his eyes and he looked at Tim.

"I hear you dislike this lawyer friend of ours more than I do?" Magnussen addressed Mycroft. "Tedious little bug, isn't he?" Mycroft pulled out his pocket watch and looked at the time.

"Oh, I don't know." Mycroft placed the pocket watch away. "He's smarter than the average goldfish. He made you squirm a little in your expensive tank, did he not?"

A pause.

Magnussen hummed.

"Have you had him looked into?" Magnussen glanced over at Tim has is pricing a car that was up for sale. Like an object, not even like livestock.

"Oh yes."

"Then you know how average he is in every way." He took Anthea's cup of tea and tasted it. Putting it back down he added a spoonful of sugar and stirred it in before trying again. "No misdemeanours, no siblings with troubled pasts, even his parents are as grey as the British sky. The most interesting thing about him is his career." No one answered. "And the fact he dated Mycroft Holmes' girlfriend. That's notable."

"Was that some kind of threat?" Anthea asked in a cool voice.

"Because if it is," Tim added, "I will be taking note of it."

"No! You misunderstand me. That was no threat." Magnussen held a palm up to Anthea. "How could that possibly be a threat when there is nothing to use as blackmail there either?" He paused and took another sip of tea. "You know what I learnt from your lawyer, Mycroft?" It's like he enjoyed saying Mycroft's name. As if the power associated with the name gave him a thrill. Mycroft raised an eyebrow lazily. "I learnt that Mr. Burgess had a girlfriend who went to school with your lapdog's wife." Anthea and Tim immediately looked over to Mycroft. The man appeared to be nonplussed on the outside but Anthea could see a storm behind those steely blue eyes. "Alice Clarke. Parents are dead, relatives don't care about her, boring sulky life before you. No friends except that one and another ex-boyfriend who had marijuana confiscated at a concert." Magnussen paused. Mycroft shifted his seating position. "I know what you're going to ask, Mycroft. How? It wasn't easy. I used the holes in Tim's life and the holes in the pretty blonde's life to connect dots. I had people look at school records in and around those years, and I had rental properties in London searched for tenants from the moment people that age would turn eighteen. Lots of work you put me through to find this one."

"That search doesn't sound completely in the legal parameters, Mr. Magnussen." Tim's threat went ignored by Magnussen but not by Mycroft.

"Oh no. You found the records of an orphan." Mycroft widen his eyes and played a game. "Whatever am I going to do?"

"You're right." Magnussen sighed, turning to Anthea. "She's as useless as her lovesick lawyer here. All I could do would be to ruin her little friend's business, or use James against his wife." Anthea's fingers dug into the tablecloth.

"If you touch Robbie or Jamie-"

"Then he did so in front of a lawyer and the most dangerous man in London." Anthea looked over to Tim. He was warning her not to say anything.

"Well put, Mr. Burgess." Mycroft nodded.

"I would have expected better from you, Mycroft." Magnussen continued to ignore Anthea and Tim. "If you were going to pick a pet I should have expected something more exotic."

"Please. That would have been too obvious." Mycroft rolled his eyes, appearing ever calm.

"Maybe a foreign assassin trying to start a new life as a nurse." Magnussen nodded at Anthea. "I could do something with that."

"Tim. That was a threat against someone we know." She didn't take her eyes off the shark for a moment.

"Duly noted, Alice."

"Come now, Charles." Mycroft leaned forward. "Give up the game. You have nothing on me. I can't do anything to you and you can't do anything to me." Mycroft pouted and shrugged. "It's been like this from the beginning. Sit back and let it be. I'm not going anywhere." Magnussen took a deep breath and glanced around the table. He finished Anthea's cup of tea in one swig and placed it back down on her saucer empty. He stood up and clasped his hands together.

"That may be so." Magnussen sighed. "But your baby brother isn't quite on such stable footing, is he?"

"Threat number three." Tim hummed. Mycroft's face grew icy and Anthea scowled.

"Moriarty couldn't beat Sherlock Holmes. You want to give it a shot?" She hissed.

"James Moriarty was a criminal, I am not. Am I, Mr. Burgess?" Tim didn't answer. "Have a nice day." As soon as he was out of earshot and sitting down at his own table Tim leaned in towards Mycroft.

"The moment you want to take him down, Holmes, the very moment, call me. I'll do the case for free."

Silence.

Mycroft stared at the back of Magnussen's head for the longest time, glaring proverbial daggers into it. Eventually he looked back at Tim with a sullen pout on his expression.

"Did you not hear me, Mr. Burgess? He cannot touch me and I cannot touch him." Anthea placed her hand on his knee gingerly. He looked at her, eyes empty.

"He threatened your brother and your girlfriend."

"I know."

"He's done worse, Tim." Anthea shook her head sadly.

"And you just let it happen?" He asked. Anthea and Mycroft shared a glance. "Anthea you always told me you worked for the good guys." Anthea couldn't even find the energy to shake her head.

"We have to work within guidelines, Tim. He's perfectly legal." She bit inside her lip. "We tried to warn you."

"But there must be something that can be done."

"Don't worry your little head, Mr. Burgess." Mycroft answered. "Men perched so high on a tower can't keep their balance forever. Eventually Charles Augustus Magnussen will toy with the wrong person and they'll knock him down." Anthea squeezed on his knee to get his attention.

"What he said about…" She cut herself off before she could say Mary's name. It was best that Tim not hear it. "Do you think she'll…?"

"If he toys with her enough." Mycroft nodded. "Let's hope she can keep her loved ones out of it."

That day was the last time Anthea ever saw Magnussen alive.

Author's Note: One scene with no cutaways. That was new for me in this fic, I think. So what did you think of it? I hope it was okay. I've still got assignments to work on but nothing due until next week so I'm going to aim to update in five days like usual but if I take a sixth day don't be surprised. Thanks to our guest reviewers; Guest, Hazel Murillo, Guesswho, Wheezzy8, Bumblebeee, and B. Thanks to all my lovely reviewers, you're all awesome! Please let me know what you thought of this chapter!

I don't normally answer guest reviewer questions as I think its clutter in the chapter but I had a few regular guests ask some and I would like to return their loyalty.

1) I tried to infer as to who Sherlock was expecting but I don't want to come out and say it. Try to work it out by the time period. Season 3, after episode 2 but before episode 3.

2) If you think the fic is too long feel free to stop whenever you want. I won't get offended at all, long fics like this aren't to everyone's taste. I never designed this with a real end game stopping point, that's the beauty of this format. And if all goes according to plan we'll be ready for season 4 in time for season 4. I didn't plan it that way but I was talking to ovejalucifer about when TAB stuff will happen and it seems to be working out perfectly.